This post is also available in: Nederlands (Dutch)
On a beautiful ADE day in 2016, I visited my regular spot: In Deep’n Dance Records in Amsterdam. It was packed, and I bumped into Minitech Project’s Farouk Hasham. He knew everyone and quickly introduced me to various people, including Mladen Tomic. 'Mladen Tomic?' I stammered in disbelief when he introduced me to a nice young man. 'You’re so handsome!' was my next statement. Awkward! Luckily and naturally, I knew his music, and we soon agreed that I would interview him about his debut. This is the result.
“Let’s get back to the beginning when everything started. It was the period from the middle to late 90s. I was a teenager in high school, with dreams like any other young boy at that age. I started to become obsessed with music in general, not only electronic music. I spent a lot of time just listening to music, discovering and recording it from the radio with a tape recorder.”
Terrordome
“It was not easy to find and buy music, mostly because of the awful things that happened in my country in the 90s, which affected all spheres in our lives. But somehow, I found a way and started a big collection of music on tapes and cassettes. I didn’t have many vinyl records or CD’s. I still have The Prodigy’s first album and the hard techno compilations Thunderdome and Terrordrome.”
Music Hall
“When I started to go out, I spent all night standing by the DJ booth watching the DJ. It was really an obsession. I simply knew that I should try as well and that I had to become a DJ. After a couple more years filling my brain with different music and spreading my knowledge about music from the early 70’s to the late 90’s, I did some ‘gigs’ in small discotheques or bars, which was fine. Then I finally got a chance to do the real thing. I got to play music all night in the best club in the city at that time which was called Music Hall. I think it was 1997, and I still was in high school.”
Huge music collection
“The resident DJs were Nikola and Dragan. They are amazing with their music selection; they create a great atmosphere and vibe in the club and are hugely respected by the people. Somehow it happened that both couldn’t play that Friday night, so I seized the moment and grabbed my chance. Before that, I’d spent months watching what they were doing there. I had also discovered a huge music collection in the club. All different genres: rock, pop, hiphop, rap, dance music of 90s, jazz, and all of this on vinyl, CDs, and tapes. I could do this.”
Adrenalin
“That was my first-time playing music in the most popular club in the city, DJing for about eight hundred to a thousand people. It was an amazing feeling. A mixture of stage fright, fear, excitement, happiness and pride, and millions of thoughts racing through my head. But I did it. I will never forget how the adrenalin rushed through me. Every DJ knows what I’m talking about. I still feel that same adrenalin at every gig.”
Residency
“I played all night. I gave it my best shot and later everybody told me that I was fantastic. So, I’d landed the residency and continued to play there two or three nights a week for the next couple of years.”
Connect
“I’ve learned a lot about DJing in that period, partly because I discovered a lot of different musical genres. I also learned how to connect with the people on the dance floor and make them happy. I picked up how to create a story with my music and share that energy with people. My musical knowledge in general improved significantly.”
“All these tricks helped me a lot later in early 00’s, when I began to focus on electronic music and became increasingly professional. In fact, the experience is helping me to this day. DJing is not just mixing music in a technically good way, DJing is so much more than that, something that penetrates much deeper.”
This interview with Mladen Tomic was originally published on DJMag.nl in February 2017.
Who is Mladen Tomic?
A hypnotic compound of techno and tech-house, further enhanced by the powerful groove and bass lines, characterize the sets of Mladen Tomic, Bosnian DJ and producer. You will recognize his uncompromising sound and strong energy, which is woven into every one of sets. The carefully selected compositions. The unique production. The strong personal touch.
Performances all over Europe, USA, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala and India are testimony of that. The ever-growing list of festivals whose line-up includes Mladen Tomic’s name is even more impressive: Miami WMC 2013 and 2014 (US), Soul Tech and Selenic Beach (Mexico), Kazantip (Ukraine), Amsterdam Dance Event (Netherlands), EXIT Festival – Dance Arena 2014 and 2019 (Serbia), Sea Dance (Montenegro) amongst many others. Mladen Tomic is a resident of Fresh Wave Festival, the biggest music festival in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
His personal work, including more than 240 original tracks, recognized, and supported by both prominent artists and owners of famous record labels such as Dubfire, Richie Hawtin, Monika Kruse, Umek, Adam Beyer, Stefano Noferini, Joris Voorn and others, have opened the doors of the most prestigious clubs and festivals around the world.
With a highly acclaimed series of original tracks, production is still the centre of Mladen Tomic’s business with regular releases on renowned labels and his own Night Light Records.
In March 2012, Mladen Tomic and Sian’s joint single Front Pocket, remixed by Nicole Moudaber, reached number 1 on the Beatport Techno charts and the original mix No.3. Mladen Tomic’s remix of Airscape by Stefano Noferini found itself in the seventh place on the Beatport techno list. The famous track Before Sunset from 2009 has also been a huge worldwide success, and it has been ranked 12th on the tech house list. And there are many more!
It is also important to mention the successful remixes produced by Mladen for famous artists, including Mauro Picotto, Sebastian Leger, Cristian Varela, Stefano Noferini, Chus & Ceballos, ANNA, Matt Sassari, Matt Sassari and Boris.
Mladen Tomic’s career began way back in 1999, when he joined forces with Sinisa Tamamović to promote events in their native Banja Luka and toured the Western Balkans. They soon founded their own label, Night Light Records, which is now the synonym for quality, innovation and releases that are always one step ahead. Mladen Tomic runs weekly radio show “Get Connected with Mladen Tomic”, he is founder of ATOMIC, Music production and DJ school, as well as BLEMC, Banjaluka Electronic Music Conference.